Overlord: Start from the Goblin Lair.

Chapter 186: Reversed Cognition

Ron and the others looked into the house and noticed some shadows in the darkness. When the two cultists came out, a huge black hand seemed to reach out from the house, but it immediately retracted when it came into contact with the sunlight.

"This is the residence of the Holy Guards. You demons are not welcome here!"

Several villagers who were captured by Ron and his team struggled to speak: "Get out of here quickly! Otherwise, when it gets dark and the Holy Guards go out on patrol, you will all go back to the abyss!"

"What are they talking about?" Victoria was confused. "They call those zombies... Holy Guards?"

"Everyone here is crazy!" A cultist took a breath and struggled to crawl to Ron's feet, pulling his trouser legs. "You are adventurers, right? Who commissioned you to come here?"

"Forget it, it doesn't matter! We are willing to give you all our savings, just take us away quickly!"

"Those zombies can't stand the temptation of flesh and blood, and will soon rush out in the sunlight!"

Ron turned his head and looked, and sure enough, the undead creatures in the room became more and more restless, constantly testing the boundary between darkness and sunlight. It looked like they would rush out soon.

To the zombies in this world, sunlight is like cold water to swimmers. Although it would be uncomfortable for them to enter it rashly, it would not be dangerous - they would adapt quickly.

"What the hell is going on? Why are you here?" Ron frowned and kicked the cultist at his feet away with great effort. "Are you followers of Dark Lord Graz'zt? What are you doing in this deserted village?"

"We, we have received divine revelation from that great man!" another cultist said boldly, "Come here, you will receive blessings and transcend your mortal body!"

"There are more than ten of us here," his companion added, "In addition to fellow believers, there are also some servants and slaves. When we first arrived here, we really felt the special treatment of being 'chosen by God.'"

"The residents here treated us as normal people and thought our servants were demons chasing us! They were strong and killed all the servants and hung their bodies on a tree at the entrance of the village, saying that they were offering them as sacrifices to the gods. At that time, we did not realize the seriousness of the matter..."

Ron:…

Should we say that they are indeed cultists? A normal person would have felt something was wrong at this point, right? !
At this time, zombies had already rushed out of the house. Avicera and others immediately rushed up and suppressed them back into the house, giving Ron time to continue questioning these people.

"What happened next? How did you find out something was wrong?" Ron noticed that the two men kept glancing at the villagers.

"Are they planning to target you 'normal people' too?"

"Yes... and no," the cultist hesitated, "Sir, I don't know if you are willing to believe me, but let me put it this way - these four 'villagers' are actually our companions who came with us."

"They are more fanatical than us, and they like to devote themselves to the cause of Lord Dark. The villagers here took them to see a wise elder in the village, and when they came back, they had become thorough 'natives'." "Fortunately, they still remember us, but unfortunately, their memories are limited to the time after they came here - they think we are believers who are willing to convert but not devout enough, so they keep persuading us - think, after witnessing all this with our own eyes, how can we still trust them?!"

"What you saw today was us two brothers trying to escape, but we were caught by them and were about to return to the village. We had planned to take advantage of your fight to escape, but we didn't expect that we would try all kinds of methods and end up in the zombies' lair..."

"They are not zombies, they are holy guards! Ge Lan, wake up, they are the devils!" The four villagers who used to be cult members angrily corrected their former fellow believers, "How much have they given up to protect our village? We don't allow you to slander them like this!"

"There's no sign of being controlled or enchanted," Polly pulled open the eyelids of a villager and frowned, "Or even I can't tell - the being who controls them must be very skilled."

"or……"

"Or what?"

"Or maybe their cognition has been distorted since birth," the witch tried to force the villager to swallow a few fat maggots, but there was no result except more curses. "This is strange - hey, can't you see that I am different from these 'demons'?"

"You!" The villager who was fed the bugs was almost mad. "How dare you treat me like this! Although you look like a human, you are no different from a devil at heart!"

"We originally thought you were a slave who was coerced, but we didn't expect you to be an accomplice! Fortunately, we didn't bring you to the village. Now let the Holy Guards punish you, the scum of the abyss!"

"It seems that I am indeed different." Polly, who maintained the appearance of an old woman, nodded with satisfaction. "Something has overturned their cognition. No matter what the reason is, it is very effective. It can even see through my illusion and point directly to my true self."

"Otherwise, I would be a devil in their eyes."

"No time to sigh!" Constance's voice came from the other side, "What the hell is this thing? Why can't it kill anything?"

"The heroic spirits of the Holy Guards will never die!" Several villagers looked at each other and laughed heartily, "Go back to your stinking abyss! The last fortress of the Falama Kingdom will never fall into the hands of the devil!"

"They're similar to the undead creatures we encountered near the green dragon's lair. If we don't cause them enough damage, they'll regenerate over and over again!" Victoria's face looked grim. A flame-like glow was thrown from her hands and poured down on the zombies. "Constance, you have to retreat! If you keep fighting like this, you'll have to deal with a bunch of severed limbs in a while!"

"This is too infuriating!" Sera wielded the giant sword, suppressing the zombies' charge again and again, but watched them reassemble themselves again and again, climb up and rush over again, "No wonder that wizard wanted that stupid spell, I want one too!"

"If it doesn't work, let's wait until night!" Sylvia extinguished the attacking undead in her hand. "This is not a solution. I can call the hounds to devour them at night!"

(End of this chapter)